Gee-zazz Christ! What a great urban archeology moment! Never saw that "Tapa cut-outs on resin ball" concept before, how cool. And how great to see their appreciation return in a new generation of restaurant owners ....who will hang them up again!

Inky and I will be in the Burbank/Glendale this weekend and hopefully will hit Damons Saturday afternoon....
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Damon's was on my mind all day today because last night we went into Glendale to have a bite & we were too late for eats so ended up at JAC'S down the street(which is a treat by the way). I was on the hunt for some old photos of Damon's in the Original location (pre 1990) when I came upon this Damon's food critique http://www.yelp.com/biz/damons-steak-house-glendale Just goes to show how ignorant people are or ? is it just that they don't get it? Here's what this patron had to say just last week, I was amused:

3
Soledad M.

Glendale, CA
3 star rating05/16/2008
I had such high expectations of this place after reading all the glowing reviews on Yelp. My fiance Daniel and I are sort of new in Glendale so we didn't really have any clue as to where to go for dinner on my birthday in April. I was craving a good steak so did some research on restaurants in Glendale and decided to try Damon's (calling it a Steak House is a bit of a misnomer).

I knew the from the reviews that the place had a "Polynesian Tiki Hut" theme but really did not know what to expect. The minute we walked in, we exchanged a mutual glance wondering if it was too late to change our minds. For one thing, the locale stinks of what I can only describe as "stale." I understand that it's an older building, but it just smells dank and old. The wannabe Hawaiian decor looks like it hasn't been updated in decades and paired with the bad lighting, the ambiance was literally depressing. The decorations reminded me of the Small World ride at Disneyland or some forgotten theme casino off the strip in Vegas. I felt like I had been transported back in time to an era from before I was born. I felt for my cell phone in my pocket just in case.

Being the eternal optimist (and ignoring Daniel's pleading glances), I decided to ignore the cheesy decor and stick it out. I've been to enough holes in the wall that turned out to be hidden gems to know that the decor does not necessarily determine the food. A host took us to a booth and gave us our menus. Being that it was a weekday (and rather early in the evening), it was not too crowded so we figured we wouldn't have to wait too long for service. We were wrong.

As we perused the menu I was underwhelmed by the lack of options. I literally felt like I was staring at a Sizzler's menu from 1984. After about twenty minutes of staring at the menu and at each other, wondering where our server was, a middle-aged lady walked over and casually asked us how everything was. We told her no one had taken our order yet. She seemed exaggeratedly shocked. So in an overly familiar tone she proceeded to take our order and give her recommendations. I had to repeat everything I said twice since she didn't seem to grasp anything I said the first time. She stared at us like we were speaking in German when I ordered a water and Daniel ordered a Coke. I guess people go there for the drinks. Drinks must be their fort because as it turns out, the food was not (neither was the service).

She brought the salad and tossed it at our table. The dressing was sort of a bright orange French dressing but it wasn't bad. Daniel didn't care for it. I ordered the grilled artichokes as a starter and I have to say that was the best thing I ate. We both ordered the petite fillet - I ordered mine medium rare and he ordered his medium. When the food arrived our steaks were reversed which was no big deal; we just traded. The fillets basically tasted as if they were hardly seasoned at all. Maybe a pinch of salt. They were a little hard and charred on the outside but tender on the inside - not too bad overall.

I was really annoyed by the inconsistency of the service most of all. First we waited twenty minutes for her to take our order, then she came to our table literally every two minutes for a total of about six visits. Then when we were done eating and just wanted to get the check and be on our way, she forgot about us again. We waited literally forty-five minutes to get the check. A busboy had boxed up our food for us and we were just sitting there waiting. The busboy even went looking for her for us but still she did not come back for three quarters of an hour. By the time we paid, we were only too happy to get out of that garish joint.

What we concluded after our first and last visit to Damon's is that this is a place that many people love for nostalgic reasons - and for the drinks. Maybe I'd come here again for drinks, but definitely not for the food. While nothing we ate stood out as being particularly bad, it was all boring and mediocre at best (with the exception of the artichoke). I think the majority of their patrons are people who grew up eating there and it takes them back to a special place in their lives. I can't imagine why else anyone would give this place such rave reviews.